Who is Princess Eugenie marrying? All the details on Jack Brooksbank and his family

By Meaghan Wray

October 09, 2018

As royal fans set their alarms to watch
Princess
Eugenie
and Jack Brooksbank
exchange vows on Oct. 12 at St George’s Chapel, many are still getting to
know the groom, and the Queen’s
granddaughter is marrying a man with a very intriguing past. While they met and
fell in love on the Swiss slopes of Verbier, there’s a lot more to Jack than
just his relationship with
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson’s
youngest daughter.

With just a few days until the couple takes over Windsor
for a two-day celebration in the second royal wedding of the year, get to know
the groom who has may fans in the Royal Family…

Jack’s parents are
Nicola
and George Brooksbank, who live just
four miles from their son and future daughter-in-law’s Kensington Palace
cottage in a gated period conversion in the borough of Wandsworth. George has
worked as a company director and chartered accountant, and while he’s found
esteem in his own career, the Brooksbanks also have ties to the Royal Family.
Aside from Jack being a very, very distance relative to Eugenie (the Duchess of
York is the great-great-granddaughter of
Lady
Julia Coke
, who is the daughter of Jack’s great-great-grandfather, Thomas coke), he is also a descendant of
the Brooksbank Baronets
. Jack’s younger brother, Thomas, works in business management
for a London-based asset management first, according to
Town
and Country
.

Jack got his name from his great-grandfather,
Sir ‘Jack’ Coke, a baronet who was a
Scots Guards officer that became an equerry to Queen Mary after he became too
old to serve in the military, according to the
Daily
Mail
. The title slightly misses the peerage
system, falling just under baron, but baronets are considered a British
hereditary dignity, like a knighthood.

Like any parents of a bride or groom, the Brooksbanks can’t
wait for their son’s big day and are crossing their fingers for sun! "We are all really excited about it," Nicola told the
Telegraph. "We are hugely looking forward to it and we are very much
hoping the weather holds out. It’s been such lovely weather—we hope to have
sunshine for Friday."

Where
did he go to school?

Jack attended the exclusive Stowe School in
Buckinghampshire, which costs a whopping $17,000 per term and counts the likes
of
Richard Branson among its alumni. However, unlike his classmates, the
ambitious Brit dove right into his hospitality work rather than continuing
his studies at university. According to
the
Daily
Mail
, he started his career working at a number of spots in Chelsea,
where his former boss at the Markham Inn, Pier Adam, says he was a “phenomenal”
operator.

The 32-year-old has worked in bars and pubs for many
years, citing it as one of his biggest passions in 2013: “I want to create a
chain of pubs. It has been my dream since I was 18. I have fond memories of
Sunday roasts in pubs with log fires, and it’s something I want to recreate.”
And his career has sure catapulted – the hospitality professional became the
European Brand Manager for
George Clooney’s
tequila company,
Casamigos, back in 2016.
Before that, he worked at numerous bars, including the celebrity hotspot
Mahiki.

How
did they meet?

It’s been eight years since Eugenie and Jack first met on
the slopes of Switzerland! The couple was introduced by mutual friends while
skiing in separate groups at luxe royal favourite Verbier. The princess said in
their engagement day interview with
BBC that
it was love at first sight. Who would have guessed that all those years later,
Jack would get down on one knee in front of a Nicaraguan volcano to propose at
sunset!

Jack made quick work of getting to know his girlfriend’s
family back in 2011, one year after they first met. The businessman has been
spotted attending many high-profile events with Eugenie, and obviously gets
along very well with her mom,
Sarah Ferguson –
the two were captured in a warm embrace outside Prince Harry and Meghan’s
wedding and laughing together at the Royal Ascot in 2017. The year before, Jack
visited
the
Queen
at Balmoral to celebrate Prince Harry’s 32nd
birthday.

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